Georgian Plum Sauce (Tkemali)
- Total Time
- 20 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:2 cups
- 1pound plums (not too ripe)
- 2tablespoons fresh lemon juice, or more, to taste
- 2tablespoons olive oil
- 1teaspoon red wine vinegar, or more, to taste
- 3cloves garlic, minced
- 1teaspoon ground coriander
- ½teaspoon salt, or more, to taste
- ½teaspoon hot pepper flakes
- ¼teaspoon black pepper
- ¼teaspoon ground cumin
- 2tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
- 2tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill
- ½teaspoon sugar, if desired
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
122 calories; 7 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 15 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 12 grams sugars; 1 gram protein; 293 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
- Step 1
Cook plums in boiling water to cover for 30 seconds. Drain in a colander, rinsing with cold water. Pull off skins. Remove stones.
- Step 2
Combine plums, 1 cup water, lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar, garlic, coriander, salt, pepper flakes, black pepper and cumin in a saucepan. Simmer until plums are very soft, 5 minutes. Puree mixture in a food processor. Return it to saucepan, and stir in the cilantro and dill.
- Step 3
Simmer sauce until thick and flavorful, about 5 minutes. If desired, add salt, lemon juice or vinegar to taste. If too tart, add sugar. Serve at room temperature.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Maka
Tkemali is meant for [mainly fried and grilled] meat, be it chicken, pork or beef. It's heavenly for a barbeque. Also for homemade fried potato. For pork, we mainly use a little sweeter version - red sour plum tkemali. Also, you can cook beets, slice them about 1 cm thick large pieces and put them in tkemali sauce.
mikeO
This was really good the first time and even better the second because we did two things: waited until the plums had reduced to add water, and added seasoning incrementally. The reasons for these mods are our yellow plums and that makes the sauce quite loose, especially with added water. And our red plums are more sour which can make the sauce sour enough without the full amounts of vinegar and lemon. I’d even recommend adding the other spices as you simmer and taste as well. So good with lamb.
Marissa
Can you recommend some good recipies to pair the tkemali sauce with. I know grilled chicken on a stick!
Maka
Tkemali is meant for [mainly fried and grilled] meat, be it chicken, pork or beef. It's heavenly for a barbeque. Also for homemade fried potato. For pork, we mainly use a little sweeter version - red sour plum tkemali. Also, you can cook beets, slice them about 1 cm thick large pieces and put them in tkemali sauce.
Julie
You can use it in Kharcho, an amazing soup that can be made with lamb or beef, lots of herbs, veggies, and ground walnuts.
Genny
Made 9/18/16 for a pork roast. I added only 3/4 c water for this and it was Too much water and not enough simmer time (followed the recipe) so the sauce was watery to my taste. I used 3 Tbsp dill, 1/2 tsp sugar, and finally some Hungarian hot paprika and the flavors were good. I froze 1 cup for later use and will simmer this some more before serving to thicken the sauce more.
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